Splatoon 2 Has Built in Voice Chat! For LAN Play…

As many Splatoon 2 fans will tell you, the way voice chat was implemented in the game is…not the best. Reliant on a companion app rather than being available in game, it’s complicated to setup, awkward to use and generally a worse alternative to things like Discord or Skype.

Because as it turns out, voice chat is actually in Splatoon 2 itself. Nintendo really did program it into Splatoon 2!

There’s just one catch.

It’s only available in LAN mode. Yep, I’m not kidding. Apparently, if you Splatoon 2 in LAN mode (aka connect multiple systems together locally) you can use voice chat between the copies of the game present. This works much the same way as it did in Splatoon 1, and seems to be aimed at tournaments and any large scale local events.

So, in fact, the feature is indeed there included in the game. It’s just for whatever Nintendo, didn’t use it for the online mode.

And that’s a truly baffling decision really. So why was it made?

Well, it’s hard to be sure really. On the one hand, it’s pretty clear that the idea of it being ‘technically’ impossible is a myth. So, the comments online about the Switch not ‘being able to handle’ voice chat are as ridiculous now as ever.

Yet at the same time there’s another possible reason here. That reason? DeNA.

In other words, they’re trying to push their phone apps, and making the Switch voice chat functionality (as well as other key features) use said apps is a way they’re doing that.

That certainly makes more sense than the ‘Switch can’t handle something every other system in the last decade can work fine with’ theories anyway.

Either way though, the feature is indeed in Splatoon 2. It’s just not enabled for online play for whatever reason.

But hey, what do you think about it? Are you disappointed that Splatoon 2’s voice chat requires an app despite not needing it to use the feature in certain offline situations?

Or do you feel there was method behind Nintendo’s madness here?

Post your opinion on the subject (and more Nintendo Switch games) here in the comments or at Gaming Latest today!